FRANKFURT—Lufthansa Group said June 29 that it is seeing increased demand for short-term and long-term bookings and has therefore taken the decision to return another 200 aircraft to service between now and the end of October.
By then, the group will be operating 380 aircraft—or roughly 50% of its fleet. That it will only offer 40% of pre-COVID-19 capacity shows that it is not yet reaching pre-crisis utilization levels with the in-service part of the fleet.
The airline said June 4 that it plans to offer 90% of short- and medium-haul destinations and 70% of long-haul markets by the end of September. That coverage is not being expanded in October, though frequencies on reintroduced routes will go up.
Weekly short-haul flying will increase from 1,800 in September to 2,100 at the end of October. Lufthansa will also add North Atlantic flying, despite the uncertainty around travel restrictions between the European Union and the U.S., announcing a raft of American routes that will have resumed by October. From Frankfurt (FRA), the carrier will restart U.S. services to Dallas (DFW), Detroit (DTW), Las Vegas (LAS), Orlando (MCO), Philadelphia (PHL), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA) and Washington (IAD). Charlotte (CLT), Denver (DEN) and Washington are also being brought back online from Munich (MUC).
Lufthansa is also adding around 20 weekly frequencies each to the Middle East and Africa in October compared to September, while its Asian services will be kept stable at 90 per week. Subsidiary Swiss International Airlines will be offering 13 long-haul destinations in July from its Zurich (ZUR) hub, growing to 18 in October.
Eurowings is offering 30-40% of its pre-crisis capacity in July and plans to offer 80% of destinations during the course of the summer. The LCC did not say what share of capacity it is bringing back over time.
As a group, Lufthansa is following a strategy of trying to cover as many destinations as possible as fast as possible, even if that means at low initial frequencies.
Lufthansa received shareholder approval for a €9 billion ($10 billion) government bailout on June 25, providing the financial basis for adding back capacity in the coming months. The group is negotiating substantial cost cutting measures with its unions and has already reached an agreement with cabin crew union UFO.
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